Owen Jones

So You Want To Access My Email Inbox?

You see people on line, guru types, giving advice on how to get into surfers’ email inboxes all the time, so first we’ll just be certain what they are talking about or what I am talking about anyway. They are talking about getting hold of your email address and sending you email in such a way that your email client (Hotmail, Outlook or whatever) will not recognise it as spam, if indeed spam it is.

Let’s face it, if you are receiving unsolicited commercial email (UCE) from strangers, then it is spam by definition, because UCE is the official term for spam and it is practically illegal, but not quite. These people are hoping that if they can just get their email past your computer’s defences and into your email inbox, that they will be able to persuade you to buy something from them and they may be right too.

I have bought from strangers sending me spam – it is a very easy thing to do – because these people are very persuasive and their offers seem to be just what you need, just when you need it and at the right price too. So, now I have a rule: I filter all my email and the only stuff that gets into my email inbox is junk from strangers.

Email from my family goes into the family folder; friends’ email goes into a folder marked ‘Friends’, et cetera, et cetera. Every message that arrives is filtered into labelled pigeon-holes, which means that any messages that are left remain in my email inbox and are unrecognised and so probably spam from chancers.

Clever chancers, but it is junk nevertheless.

Every email programme allows users to create folders, so I urge you to start setting yours up as soon as possible. It is not difficult and you do not have to do it all at once. Start with the most important folders like ‘Friends’ and ‘Family’ or ‘Work’ and whenever an email comes in that would fit into one of them, right-click it and set a rule (a filter) to direct it and every email like it into the relevant folder.

You can then use that rule to search all the email that you have saved to look for similar emails to put into the same folder. This is handy, because you may find messages that you thought you had lost long ago. Over the following weeks, every time you get an email that is relevant, either direct it to an existing folder or create a new one for especially it.

If you start like this, within a week, you will find that most of your email becomes sorted automatically; you will feel more organised, know where everything is and will be less bothered by junk email.

Last, but not least, this system can go wrong over time – computers are not perfect and nor are email clients – so every few months, just review the rules you have made for sorting your email and see whether any of them have become inactive, which could come about because of power outages or slips of the mouse.

by +Owen Jones